16 November 2011
Compare and contrast: Two pieces on "overpopulation"
Use a condom, save the planet? New campaign shatters the taboo of overpopulation - SciGuy/Chron.com
It is true there is a finite limit to the human population the planet can support and maintain a health [sic] biological diversity.
At some point the balance between people and the environment is going to get tipped against forests, animals and nature. Thomas Malthus was famously wrong two centuries ago when he said it was happening. Paul Ehrlich was also wrong last century.
Is 7 billion the magic number? Tough to say.
What taboo? The left has been complaining about "overpopulation" for quite some time, so it's not surprising that it would make an appearance on the left-leaning SciGuy's blog. Even better that a little Global Warmism is part of the mix!
Here's the sort of perspective that one won't ever find on SciGuy's blog, on the other hand:
Five myths about the world's population - Nicholas Eberstadt, Washington Post
Sure, 7 billion is a big number. But most serious demographers, economists and population specialists rarely use the term "overpopulation" - because there is no clear demographic definition.
For instance, is Haiti, with an annual population growth rate of 1.3 percent, overpopulated? If it is, then was the United States overpopulated in 1790, when the new country was growing at more than 3 percent per year? And if population density is the correct yardstick, then Monaco, with more than 16,000 people per square kilometer, has a far greater problem than, say, Bangladesh and its 1,000 people per square kilometer.
Back in the 1970s, some scholars tried to estimate the "optimum population" for particular countries, but most gave up. There were too many uncertainties (how much food would the world produce with future technologies?) and too many value judgments (how much parkland is ideal?)
Even considering resource scarcity isn't all that helpful. During the 20th century's population explosion - when we went from 1.6 billion people to more than 6 billion - real prices for rice, corn and wheat fell radically, and despite recent spikes, real prices for food are lower than 100 years ago. Prices, of course, are meant to reflect scarcity; by such reasoning, the world would be less overpopulated today than a century ago, not more.
Eberstadt's piece is a good read (as is most of his work).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/16/11 09:53 PM |
15 November 2011
Houston Fire Department helps Occupy Houston squatters steal electric safely
Houston Fire Department and Protestors Find Resolution to Safety Hazards - HFD Public Affairs Office
Today, the HFD Fire Marshal and organizers of the “Occupy Houston” protest group met to find a resolution to safety hazard concerns in Tranquility Park along Bagby Street.
Inspectors found electrical cords under water, overload of electrical outlets, and covers taken off night lights in the park exposing live wires.
Inspectors and organizers worked together to insure all safety hazards were addressed and no code violations exist. A compromise was reached to allow the organizers to use six plugs for appliances, however, extension cords would no longer be used. These resolutions are in compliance with the fire code.
So here is a followup question to yesterday's question: Why has the Parker Administration just now discovered that the free electricity it's providing combined with water and the Occupy Houston squatters is a potentially dangerous mix? Perhaps readers have some additional questions.
Right now, Mayor 50.2% is very busy on a junket in Israel (driving around electric cars!), so the answers will just have to wait we suppose.
PREVIOUSLY: KHOU: Parker Administration provides free electric to Occupy Houston squatters
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/15/11 08:30 PM |
14 November 2011
KHOU: Parker Administration provides free electricity to Occupy Houston squatters
‘Occupy Houston’ protestors and HPD maintain uneasy truce - Kevin Reece, KHOU-11 News
The protesters, by their own count numbering about 150, now have their own makeshift library, large containers to grow vegetables and a full-size refrigerator powered by extension cords plugged into public outlets inside the park.
Can someone explain to me why the Parker Administration is paying for these squatters to have electricity for their full-size refrigerator while the same Parker Administration is squeezing every last penny out of the 53% (fee increases, water rate increases, rain tax)?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/11 09:51 PM |
13 November 2011
KHOU takes closer look at Quannel the Tenth (updated)
Story text: Activist Quanell X accused of taking advantage of those seeking help - Jeremy Rogalski, KHOU-11 News
Quannel the Tenth seems to enjoy a lifestyle a bit more lavish than the average "community activist," yet local media for years have been disinclined to look into his operation. Kudos to KHOU-11 for taking a closer look.
UPDATE (11/15/2011): Quannel the Tenth now claims the KHOU stories are all part of a conspiracy to kill him (really).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/11 09:42 PM |
Sheriff Garcia whines to Chron about funding; Bloggers offer different perspective
30,000 warrants caught in backlog at Sheriff's Office - Anita Hassan, Houston Chronicle
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia attributes the backlog to a lack of staff, funding and a county hiring freeze that not only prevents him from hiring new employees, but also from replacing any who leave.
This guy CONSTANTLY seems to be whining about a lack of funding.
Here's a slightly different perspective on the whining:
But wait, [Sheriff Adrian Garcia] is the guy who got around the hiring freeze to add multiple Democrat political hacks to his payroll after the 2010 election turned one out of office and cost the others their jobs when a Republican won a supposedly safe Democrat seat on the Harris County Commissioners Court. Add to that the fact that Garcia couldn't find any fat to cut in his budget and in fact had no staff furloughed or laid off under the 2011 budget and had a budget increase. Besides -- the hiring freeze was lifted in April AND Sheriff Garcia got more hiring authorized last month.
Maybe Adrian Garcia can put his political hires, such as former Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson and former Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia's former staffers, to wok entering warrants in order to justify their inflated salaries.
And here's a bit of media criticism:
The job you're hired to do - Harris County Almanac
While the Chron.com piece offers zero feedback from anyone other than the HCSO spin-doctors (Garcia himself), [Rhymes with Right] provides some much needed context and a little history lesson in Garcia's hiring practices.
Balanced, professional journalism is hard.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/11 09:25 PM |
20% of hotel tax still being funneled to "arts"
Hotel tax provides lucrative backing for arts - Houston Chronicle
[T]here is one area where arts and commerce converge that gets far less exposure than grants and exhibitions. And it's one that Ortale and the convention and visitors bureau are currently bringing to Houston's attention. This past week, they launched a local awareness campaign to highlight the little-known, but hugely significant, fact that 19.3 percent of the hotel tax, which constitutes 7 percent of the cost of a room, goes to support the arts in Houston.
Minnette Boesel, Mayor Annise Parker's assistant for cultural affairs, told the Chronicle that for fiscal year 2011, the local arts' share of that tax was $11 million. Almost 40 percent of that went to the Houston Arts Alliance, for grants and programs for about 250 organizations and individuals, with the rest going to the Theater District and Museum District associations and the Miller Theatre Advisory Board.
That's an impressive chunk of change. But as Ortale told the Chronicle, "Our biggest problem has been a lack of awareness. People remember the Houston of 20, 30 years ago. They don't know this Houston - vibrant and green and leading the country in clean energy consumption …
Where to start with this editorial that ran last weekend?
First, it's worth keeping in mind that yes, a whopping 19.3% of the hotel tax is directed to luxuries. Whatever one's opinion of the arts, a government that can direct roughly 20% of a revenue source to nonessential activities is a government that is not as strapped as "sky is falling!" pols and bureaucrats would have you believe. Definitely keep that in mind next time they are crying over the next fiscal calamity.
Second, what in the world do "green" and "clean energy" have to do with the arts, or this significant allocation of tax resources? Nothing. It's a non-sequitur.
Third, my blogging colleague Anne Linehan reminds me of what a fine steward of tax dollars the Houston Arts Alliance has been.
Finally, Tom Bazan took up this topic over at his My Houston News site, Boondoggles (inexplicably, the pseudo-blogs over there do not seem to allow hyperlinks).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/11 09:01 PM |
12 November 2011
Gattis on Houston and opportunity urbanism
The following video is a very interesting presentation by local blogger Tory Gattis on Houston and opportunity urbanism:
Gattis has posted supplemental material on his blog.
It's always good to see a principled defense of Houston's entrepreneurial spirit and foundation (and their role in Houston's growth and vibrancy), whether it's coming from Tory Gattis or Unca Darrell.
The contrast with the output of, say, Chron editorial board member Lisa Gray or the Houston Tomorrow types couldn't be sharper.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/11 11:16 PM |
Rah rah: KTRK lauds soccer stadium "business boom"
Dynamo stadium already bringing business boom - Tom Abrahams, KTRK-13 News
Houston's East End will see an economic boost thanks to a brand new soccer stadium.
The stadium is still months away from actually hosting a game, but it's already making an impact.
Two well-located businesses think the soccer stadium will help them, and this gets a mindless rah-rah cheerleader piece from KTRK?
"Houston's News Leader" has been exercising some strange editorial judgment of late.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/11 10:58 PM |
Fleck retiring from Houston Chronicle
Dear Toomey - Campos Communications's Blog
The Tim Fleck Retirement Get Together, Part I was held last night at The Roundtable. The usual suspects showed up including the Harris County DA and CM James Rodriguez. It was a nice crowd for sure.
Campos is going to get himself in trouble. From what I've heard, the first rule of Houston Journo-List is that participants do not talk about Houston Journo-List.
As for Fleck, his old political gossip column in the Houston Press was always an entertaining read. The Chron editorial board's output, on the other hand, has not met the standards one expects of a major daily newspaper for quite some time.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/11 10:53 PM |
God complex: METRO Playwright in Chief vows personally to "move people"
Smart Transit...Maybe Even a Yak - Write on METRO
Smart service also looks at the entire trip - not just time on a vehicle. That means good sidewalks that offer access to bus stops, and shelters at those stops. Greanias says he tell his staff to be "mode agnostic."
"I do not care what we use to move you. There will be cases when a 40-foot bus will be exactly right. There will be areas when...light-rail would be appropriate. It may be a trolley or a tram," said [METRO CEO and Playwright in Chief George] Greanias, roaming between luncheon tables as he spoke with sleeves rolled up. "METRO is oriented to do whatever works. Whether it's a bus, a train, a taxicab or God forbid, a yak, I will move people across this town."
The talk about buses and shelters and such sounds great, aside from the fact that a transit organization bankrupted by an expensive light-rail buildout (to benefit relatively few users) can't afford to take care of the rest of the transit system (hence the ongoing decline in overall system utilization, even as our population grows). Unfortunately, New METRO's "mode agnostic" rhetoric doesn't really match Same Old METRO's behavior.
As an aside, the reference to yaks is just creepy coming from the deviant who views adolescent gay porn using METRO resources.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/11 10:44 PM |
08 November 2011
"Journalism deserts" and "mobility deserts" also problems in Houston!
'Food Deserts' a problem in Houston - Ted Oberg, KTRK-13 News
Myrtha Billups has a pantry full of food, but no easy way to get it.
"The grocery stores are terrible around here," Billups said.
She's lived in Houston's Third Ward for more than 50 years and, while it wasn't always this way, it's tough for her to get to a grocery store without a ride from her daughter.
[snip]
"In Houston, food deserts are a big problem. We have more food deserts than other metropolitan cities in the U.S.," Laura Spanjian with the City of Houston Office of Sustainability said.
This is a really disappointing piece coming from Ted Oberg, whose "In Focus" selections usually bring balance and some degree of depth (at least for TV news) to the issues he chooses to cover.
In this piece, what viewers/readers got instead was a long editorial that never truly defined the "problem" of "food deserts," but merely ran with the complaints of a Third Ward resident about the lack of grocery stores in an economically challenged neighborhood, and the assertions of a city bureaucrat whose job depends upon (so far as we can tell) drawing attention to these sorts of "problems" and sucking up taxpayer resources to address them.
Not much balance or curiosity to that reporting -- indeed, it's a veritable Journalism Desert!
Now, squandering taxpayer resources to bribe grocery stores to build in problem neighborhoods doesn't strike us as a legitimate function of municipal government in the first place.
But here's a question Oberg might have addressed if he'd done something more than turn his camera (and Houston's top rated newscast) over to a self-serving city bureaucrat: Why in the world can't residents of poor neighborhoods depend upon public transit to do routine tasks like grocery shopping?
Answer: Because even as METRO is more in debt than ever before, all that red ink is being squandered on light-rail projects of the sort favored by the local world-class Houtopia set at the expense of bus and METROlift services that are more geared towards providing mobility for less affluent residents of our city. In effect, METRO has created Mobility Deserts through its light-rail madness. Too bad no self-serving bureaucrats are out in front of the cameras championing remedies to that problem.
PREVIOUSLY: CM Costello still working on Houston's "food deserts"
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/08/11 01:00 PM |
06 November 2011
A tale of two newsblog posts: HISD trustee's campaign flyer draws criticism
- Houston ISD Trustee Manuel Rodriguez under fire for campaign flyer called 'homophobic' - Mike Cronin, Texas Watchdog
- Gay rights group condemns HISD trustee’s ad - Ericka Mellon, School Zone/Chron.com
First, a media note, and second, a substantive note for discussion.
First, of the two "news blog" posts, it's interesting that the first actually uses tools of new media (hyperlinks, scribd, etc.) to tell the story, and the second... reads like old media (the reporter interprets the flyer in question but doesn't hyperlink or otherwise reproduce it for readers). So many years into the age of new media, it's still kind of interesting to see old media struggling so much with the concept. But hey, the Chron has an iPad app now, as many Chronsters have proclaimed on twitter, so there's that!
Second... I don't have kids, and if I did I'd try my best to avoid HISD, so I'm not inclined to use too many pixels to lecture parents on how they should evaluate candidates for school board. If candidate Rodriguez thinks candidate Fonseca's lifestyle is an issue for voters to evaluate, even though some arbiters of what Just Can't Be Said disagree, then I suppose that's his prerogative (at least, I think the First Amendment still spells out as much, unless Mr. Justice Kennedy has changed his mind lately and I've missed the decision). It doesn't strike me as the most important issue facing a struggling school district with any number of problems, though. What does the BH community think?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/06/11 01:08 PM |
30 October 2011
Five years later, federal court denies City's effort to squeeze travel websites
City loses bid for bigger slice of hotel tax - Chris Moran, Chron Houston Politics
City Hall and the local sports stadium authority can collect hotel room tax only on what hotels.com pays for a room, not on what the Web site’s customers pay it for booking the room, an appeals court has ruled.
The Fourteenth Court of Appeals ruling on Tuesday upholds a trial court ruling in City of Houston and Harris County-Houston Sports Authority vs. hotels.com and 10 other Internet travel booking sites.
Back when Bill White announced he was hiring outside legal counsel to pursue this revenue stream, we expressed skepticism about the wisdom of the mayor's gambit (and drew some criticism in the comments).
So one fairly important matter didn't find it into Chris Moran's blog post: Just how much did this failed legal effort cost taxpayers?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/30/11 09:44 PM |
Dolcefino continues investigation of Precinct 6 Constable office
KTRK Undercover Man Wayne Dolcefino was back with more reports last week from his ongoing investigation into the Precinct 6 Constable's office:
The allegations in the first report are bad enough, but if government officials actually withheld and altered documents as the second report alleges, Dolcefino's going to be adding some more scalps to his collection.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/30/11 09:28 PM |
19 October 2011
Activists narrowly head off HCDE stealth tax increase effort
- Harris County Department of Education votes against small tax hike after strong opposition - Miya Shay, KTRK-13 News
Whenever you talk about homes and their property taxes, emotions run high. At the Harris County Department of Education, board member Jim Henley was angry.
"I want to give a quality of education to our students, and I want to go against the grain of all that's been happening," Henley said.
Henley was among the board members who supported a small tax rate increase from the current rate of .006581 to .006804 per hundred-dollar valuation.
[snip]
"What your tax money does is leverages dollars for school districts. That's why the Harris County Department of Education is a viable entity today," board president Angie Chestnut said.
Anti-tax advocate Barry Klein was determined to win this battle. After several speakers, and an hour of debate, the board voted 4-3 to not change the tax rate.
- Department of Education leaves tax rate the same - Mike Morris, Chron Houston Politics
HCDE board member Roy Morales had said the district’s goal in considering raising the rate was to collect the same amount of money with the new rates as it had with the old ones. Because property values have fallen, Morales had said, that meant the rate had to go up to collect the same revenue.
A number of small-government advocates spoke at the meeting against the proposed increase. Houston Property Rights Association president Barry Klein, one such attendee, credited county Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners with convincing the board to leave the rate untouched.
Sumners described his role as offering “friendly persuasion” against a tax hike. He said his success in that effort was simply a matter of presenting the data.
“With the latest numbers, they didn’t need to raise the rate at all to get the budgeted amount,” he said. In other words, the value of all county properties is such that the district still will bring in about $18 million in revenue with the same tax rate in place.
This stealth tax increase would probably have sailed right on through if not for the diligence of Barry Klein and the other activists who snapped to the fact that the Harris County Department of Education scheduled its "workshop" on the tax increase on the very same day it intended to vote on said tax increase.
It's probably worth looking at some of the various players quoted in these two stories. From the bottom up:
1) There's Roy Morales, alleged conservative who nonetheless seemed to be making the case -- in a building named for Ronald Reagan no less! -- to raise taxes. A true conservative ought to be making the case to disband this unneeded remnant of a different time, or at least to hold the line on taxes. Then there are "conservatives" like Roy Morales who are known to loan their political campaigns money at usurious interest rates. Make of all of this what you will.
2) There's Angie Chesnut (KTRK's story was not only slanted, but also got the name wrong), whose board bio indicates she owns a private "curriculum development and consulting firm." We imagine she has some interest indeed in leveraging dollars for school districts (and perhaps just a few for herself? Perhaps)!
and
3) There's Jim Henley, a name we hadn't really considered since he was running around becoming a minor fringe-left celebrity in his quixotic challenge to conservative Rep. John Culberson some years ago (he claimed all of 38% of the vote). Same old tax-and-spender, it would seem. And angry still, too!
We can't come up with good reasons the Harris County Department of Education (with its bloated non-education staff) even exists -- and exists to the tune of draining Harris County taxpayers of $18 million per year. The folks at Texas Trash Talk make a pretty good case for eliminating the entity. We encourage readers to check them out (and we thank them for their part in heading off this stealth tax increase effort).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/19/11 10:23 PM |
17 October 2011
Montrose biz owners take aim at unaccountable, Houston Way taxing entity
Business owners want Montrose Management District dissolved - Ken Fountain, YourHoustonNews.com
The Montrose Management District, not yet a year old, may be facing extinction.
During a tense meeting of the district’s board Friday, members voted unanimously to begin the process of verifying signatures on a petition by commercial property owners seeking the district’s dissolution.
[snip]
From the outset, a group of small business owners have opposed the district, appearing at board meetings to voice their objections. Many claim that they were unaware of the district’s formation until last fall, when they received mailed notices of a meeting to set the property assessment.
Ever since, they’ve vowed to collect the number of signatures from property owners required by state law -- equal to 75 percent of the assessed commercial property in the district -- to force the board to dissolve the district.
On Sept. 29, they presented a signature [sic] with 1,003 signatures, representing what they claim 78.56 percent of the assessed property, to the district’s executive director, David Hawes of the firm Hawes Hill Calderon LLP.
Kudos to the business owners who are determined to abolish this unaccountable, secretive taxing entity that serves no useful purpose for the general public and was created virtually under cover of darkness by elites to benefit elites.
On that last -- It is worth noting the role that liberal Democrat Ellen Cohen, then state representative and now City Council candidate, played in creating this new, largely unaccountable taxing entity that apparently only government elites (and connected cronies) wanted and that is opposed by an overwhelming majority of those being taxed (so much for the principle of no taxation without representation, hmm).
Oh, and guess who is on the management district's Board? Mayor Annise Parker's "life partner" Kathy Hubbard! Neat, huh?
And as Ken Fountain reports, the firm of David Hawes "manages" many more of these unaccountable entities (some 20 or so, word has it) that tax Houston businesses -- talk about local government of, by, and for elites!
Given all the hyperventilating we've seen from local Dem partybloggers and the Chron editorial board (wait, is there a distinction?) about Gov. Perry and "crony capitalism," I'm sure we'll shortly see a flurry of opinion pieces in support of Montrose business owners' efforts to stand up to local political elites and connected Houston Way cronies/leeches. Right?
There's more information on this important fight at StopDistrict11.org. We wish them good luck in their efforts to shut down this entity, and think it's well past time to start reining in so many of these unaccountable/undemocratic taxing entities. It would also be helpful to remember enablers like liberal Democrat Ellen Cohen when one is voting.
BACKGROUND: The growing "Special District" problem in Texas.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/17/11 09:55 PM |
15 October 2011
Doing the job METRO won't
Six years after METRO pulled the plug on the downtown trolleys, several downtown entities have banded together to start a downtown bus shuttle service (via Swamplot):
Beginning next spring, a new free shuttle service called Greenlink will connect the George R. Brown Convention Center to City Hall — and about 20 stops along the way.
MORE: Free downtown bus rides coming in spring (Houston Chronicle)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/15/11 05:27 PM |
14 October 2011
Houston Way Accountability: Rebuild Houston "flood control" boondoggle to fund bike trails
It was passed by Houston voters as a tax to address the city’s decrepit drainage system and Third World streets. But $857,000 of the new Proposition 1 fund --- which Mayor Annise Parker pitched as a "lock box that can only be spent for street and drainage improvements" --- is slated for hike and bike trails.
The money will pay for "design, acquisition and construction" of trails as part of an overall plan to provide "an alternate route of travel for bicyclists and/or hikers away from street traffic," according to the city's latest capital improvement plan.
Shown the budget item, a chief proponent of Proposition 1 was baffled.
“The money was not supposed to go for hike and bike trails,” said Bob Jones, part of the successful Renew Houston effort. “This is not the intention for the money that we voted on.”
[snip]
“With a fee and placing that in the city charter, we would be prohibited from spending this money on anything other than streets and drainage," Parker promised in an interview on the eve of the vote. "In an age of teabaggers and activism, this is forcing compliance from government.”
Apparently, this is how compliance and accountability look to the Parker Administration.
Just to recap...
Special interests (including a sitting councilmember) effectively constructed a new revenue stream (tax) for a slush fund to benefit themselves address neglected drainage issues.
Along with those special interests, Mayor Parker misled the public about the true average monthly cost of the new tax.
And for good measure, Mayor Parker, while campaigning for this boondoggle, used a tired LibDem vulgarity to refer to Tea Party activists who have been demanding fiscal accountability from government.
So, how many readers are surprised by this development? Please chime in.
BLOGVERSATION: Harris County Almanac, Texas Conservative.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/14/11 08:25 AM |
11 October 2011
HISD board prez, PR chief insist reporter stop asking questions of public figure
The following original reporting from Texas Watchdog is reproduced via their Creative Commons license.
Houston ISD's Paula Harris blocks Texas Watchdog reporter from her Twitter, Facebook feeds, calls reporter 'unethical'
BY MIKE CRONIN
The president of the Houston school board told a Texas Watchdog reporter on Monday that she hasn’t answered requests for comments about herself and her ties to district contractors for more than nine weeks because the reporter is unethical.
Paula Harris made the comments after Texas Watchdog sought her out after a school board agenda review meeting to ask why she had blocked the reporter from both her Twitter account, @HISDPaulaHarris, and her Facebook page, and about whether she had been involved in making a post about the Twitter-blocking disappear from the reporter's Facebook page.
An incumbent campaigning to keep her seat against challenger Davetta Daniels on Nov. 8, told the reporter that she had “a whole list of unethical things” she said the reporter had done. “That’s why I won’t talk to you,” Harris said.
She accused Texas Watchdog of trying to secretly record that conversation and a Houston Independent School District audit committee meeting in August, which Texas Watchdog says is not true.
“I’m very busy,” Harris said Monday night. “I don’t have time to talk to you right now.”
HISD spokesman Jason Spencer this morning sent a letter to Texas Watchdog's editors, saying that the district "respectfully request(s) that Mr. Cronin be instructed to respect Ms. Harris’ decision to not speak with him." Spencer also said Texas Watchdog had "crossed the line into bullying, intimidating, and unethical behavior with respect to Trustee Harris."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/11/11 01:55 PM |
07 October 2011
SAFEclear struggling after Parker Administration tinkering
Safe Clear tows down 60 percent, service times triple after revamp - Gabe Gutierrez, KHOU-11 News
Tows for the city’s Safe Clear initiative have dropped by 60 percent and service times have tripled since the program was revamped this summer, the Houston Police Department confirmed.
Most drivers are refusing the tows since a mandatory fee of $50 was imposed on July 1.
[snip]
Jeanette Rash manages Safe Clear. She said the tows are taking longer because wrecker operators have to educate stranded drivers about the $50 fee. But she insists the program can be saved.
[snip]Her critics think she has a virtual monopoly. She strongly disagrees, saying that dozens of other towing companies have Safe Clear contracts.
"Not every company can do congestion management,” she said. “It takes a different level of training and professionalism."
Let me translate Jeannette Rash's comments: What she means is that the folks who secured their deal with the City back when it was cushy (that is, paying for every single tow as quickly as the exclusive operator for a given zone could get 'em off the streets) REALLY liked that deal. Companies that have secured government-enforced monopolies usually are pretty happy with their competitive advantage.
Now that the City of Houston isn't coughing up the cash, and apparently stranded motorists aren't an automatic $50 dispenser either, the government-enforced monopolies suddenly aren't so keen to get cars off the road. Economics tells us incentives matter, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone (except perhaps to the Parker Administration, which seems easily confused in its policymaking).
Now, I'm no fan of the original Bill White/Bicycle Bob Stein approach to paying for the program (part of the incentive was that tow operators could charge for storage and/or confiscate cars whose drivers couldn't pay the original fee). I wasn't all that bothered when SAFEclear was revised, and began using tax/METRO dollars to fund a program that arguably did improve mobility (unfortunately, METRO's light-rail obsession has left it in precarious financial straits, so it can no longer focus on broader mobility). And I was never a fan of the Houston Way approach to assigning certain tow operators to zones, rather than considering more economic/incentive-oriented approaches to getting stalls/accidents cleared in a timely manner; that seemed more like a way to pick/reward favorites than anything.
We'd encourage the Parker Administration to go back and reconsider that last part of the equation (but we won't be holding our collective breath).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/07/11 07:54 AM |
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